Driver's airbag systems have been known and used for many years. There systems are generally mounted within the vehicle's steering wheel and are designed to inflate in the event of an accident or crash. The inflating airbag is then positioned between the vehicle driver and the steering wheel to protect the driver from harmful impact with the steering wheel, the dashboard, the windshield, or other portions of the vehicle interior.
In order to inflate an airbag, an inflator and a diffuser is generally used. The inflator is used to produce and/or channel a quantity of inflation gas into the airbag. It is the influx of inflation gas into the airbag that causes the airbag to inflate. Generally, the diffuser is positioned to direct or channel the gas produced by the inflator into the airbag.
In order to channel the gas into the airbag, the diffuser will generally comprise a plurality of holes through which the inflation gas will flow. These holes are generally equally spaced or equally dispersed about the diffuser. By having the holes equally dispersed about the diffuser, the inflation gas will have a variety of different flow paths and will have the ability to inflate the airbag uniformly.
Most driver's airbag systems are designed to provide optimal impact protection for drivers that are in the standard, expected position—e.g, seated in the driver's seat with a seatbelt buckled. Of course, it is entirely possible that, in some crashes, the driver may be “out of position” (or “OOP”)—e.g., not in the standard, expected position. Vehicle manufacturers have devoted significant time and energy attempting to construct airbag systems that will provide sufficient impact protection for OOP drivers/vehicle occupants.
In order to protect OOP drivers, it may be desirable, in some situations, to cover some of the airbag diffuser holes. Such covering of these holes would mean that the airbag would no longer inflate uniformly. In other words, some portions of the airbag would inflate more quickly than other portions of the airbag. Depending upon this position of the OOP driver, this may be desirable. For example, if some of the diffuser holes were covered proximate the top of the diffuser module, gas entering the top of the airbag would be restricted such that this area of the airbag would inflate more slowly. Such inflation may be desirable as the airbag would inflate more slowly proximate the head of an OOP occupant.
However, to date there has been no satisfactory means whereby these top diffuser holes would be blocked to protect an OOP occupant. Moreover, even if the top holes were blocked, the steering wheel may rotate during the operation of the vehicle. Thus, when the steering wheel is rotated (such as to turn the vehicle), these blocked holes will no longer be positioned at the “top” of the system.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a new type of system that addresses one or more of the above-recited problems. Such a device is disclosed herein.